“… we are just water hyacinth plants floating on a river. Don’t let the current pull you down. Protect yourself because no one else can.”
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Dust Child tells us the impact of the Vietnam war on several generations of people. We see the impact on two young poor sisters during the war, an American GI stationed there during the war and a child born of a local and an American soldier. We learn the harshness of life during the war and after both on the regular people and those who were fighting. But the more resonant and impactful messaging was about how poorly the locals were treated and the depth of the aftermath left in the most unexpected ways.
I learned a ton with this novel about the abandoned children of American soldiers. I personally never thought about the heartache and wanting this could bring. Nor did I ever think about how ostracized those children would be. I was definitely invested in these characters from page one and was surprised how the story ended up, it was not what I expected going in. Multiple POV made it compelling, each time a scene would end I’d be dying to flip to see how they ended up.
Thanks to Algonquin Books for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.
Yesterday was the first day of spring, what are you looking most forward to this spring?
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